Sunderland's international trio of Jon McLaughlin, Tom Flanagan and Conor McLaughlin were all unused substitutes as their countries suffered defeats last night.

Scotland goalkeeper Jon McLaughlin could only look on as Belgium stormed to a 4-0 win at Hampden Park after a virtuoso performance from Manchester City star Kevin de Bruyne.

Meanwhile, Northern Ireland were left to rue missed chances in their 2-0 defeat against Germany, but neither Flanagan nor Conor McLaughlin got off the bench at Windsor Park.

But the good news for Sunderland is that with all three kicking their heels on the bench, they should all be fit and raring to go for the Black Cats' League One game at Accrington on Saturday.

Northern Ireland boss Michael O'Neill admitted it would take time to shake off the disappointment of Monday's defeat to Germany but insisted he could take encouragement from Northern Ireland's performance heading into the remaining fixtures of the Euro 2020 qualifiers.

Kai Havertz of Germany takes a shot on the goal against Jamal Lewis of Northern Ireland (Image: Bongarts/Getty Images)

O'Neill's first reaction was to call the 2-0 defeat a "wasted opportunity" given some of the chances Northern Ireland passed up during a goalless first half, but he admitted he might have a different view on the game once the dust had settled.

"We can take encouragement," the manager said. "We can't control the level of opponents and unfortunately that's Holland and Germany, we sometimes forget that.

"You just look at the two panels of players and where they play their club football.

"We take encouragement in terms of how we played but the games aren't going to get any easier and we're 100 per cent aware of that.

"The next games are going to be very difficult and that puts us in a more difficult position."

Read More

Read More

"And if we finish third it will mean we have performed well, which should give us confidence going into the play-off games in March."

Clarke, who has now lost three of his first four games, said: "I don't like losing games, I don't like losing games heavily, so we have to address that in the next four games.

"It's not always about building, I'm not going to experiment in the next four games. I don't have to experiment, I have to work with the players who are at my disposal and I have to try and make us better and certainly more resilient defensively."